I am fascinated where this will go from a purely business aspect. The maker of the show stated this:

In an interview with the Guardian two years ago, McKerrow expressed reservations about the BBC’s decision to move the show from BBC2 to its flagship channel. “We love making programmes for BBC2, [controller] Janice Hadlow is absolutely brilliant,” he said. “Commercially, it’s nice to do it for a channel where you have only got to get 2 million viewers. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, so my first instinct was – why do we have to move to 1?

The show generated 14 million viewers in last season finale, something McKerrow probably only dreamed about. The BBC are paying £15 million for 3 season. McKerrow wants £25 million per season. So he went from I am happy its doing its own small thing to show me the money, show me the money once he smelt success.

We do not know if Mel, Sue, Hollywood and Berry will jump ship and move to the new Ch4 show. If they do not and all decide to start their own show to rival their old show, this could be the biggest blunder in TV business dealing (for Ch4) since Top Gear.

The only winner here is McKerrow, but I also think if he was less greedy, in the long run, he could have made more money, if the Ch4 version fails. I suppose it is a gamble. Either way McKerrow will not go hungry and Sky, who own 70% of Love productions, can make even more money

Games playing : Alan Wake American Nightmare / Metro 2033 / Total War Thrones Of Britannia / Warlock Of Firetop Mountain / Orcs Must Die / 2000:1 A Space Felony

It would be hard for the Beeb to justify paying that considering it comes from license fees. Personally have never watched the show as the premise bores me rigid, so not great loss for the Boots household.

Half-expect it to become another Come Dine With Me now, initially popular and then repeated ad nauseum until no-one ends up giving much of a shit about it. There's a good chance greedy producers have killed off their cash cow.

I imagine the BBC realised they could make their own baking show (with blackjack and hookers?) for far less than £25m. Take away presenter fees and what are the overheads? A tent, some kitchen equipment and ingredients. Incidentally I saw my first episode of Bake Off at the weekend (at parents') and concluded that the number of craps I give about it can be counted on zero fingers. The most entertaining part was when my dad suggested that Paul Hollywood looks like Geralt, which triggered some bewildered googling.

The concept of Love Productions doing this is completely sound - they have shareholders to answer to, obviously they can't afford to be sentimental and deny themselves extra income - but whether it will backfire on them longterm, who knows.

I watched the odd episode last year and I can see the appeal. What I'm most surprised about is the fact it isn't a BBC show in the first place. It's such a basic concept, I'd just assumed it was some random idea created by a BBC producer years ago.

Edwin wrote:Bake off has probably peaked anyway, how many times can you watch people making cakes?

The same amount of times you can watch apprentices running around London trying to sell stuff I would say.

Mel and Sue have already jumped ship and Mary Berry is apparently unhappy about the move, but I can see both Berry and Hollywood moving to Channel 4 if Love Productions offer them enough. The show takes less of a hit when losing the two presenters than it would if it lost both judges.

This year is the first time I've actually watched the show and apart from Mel and Sue being a bit annoying at times, I've enjoyed it.